event was presided over by the editor of the Daily Mail, Thomas Marlowe (in lieu of Lord Northcliffe) and attended by, among others, French ambassador Paul Cambon. Grahame-White was given a consolation prize of an inscribed white-silver bowl, filled with red and white roses. Legacy The events of 27–28 April constituted the world's first long-distance air race, and also marked the first night-time take-off of a heavier-than-air machine; Grahame-White's decision proved that night-time take-off, flight and navigation were possible, provided that the pilot was able to relate his position to the ground. Grahame-White did this with the help of friends, one of whom shone his car's headlamps onto the wall of a public house. Paulhan's arrival in Didsbury was the first powered flight into Manchester from any point outside the city. His achievement is commemorated by a blue plaque, fixed to the front wall of 25–27 Paulhan Road, a pair of 1930s semi-detached houses near the site of his landing. Within weeks of Paulhan's victory, the Daily Mail offered a new prize; £10,000 to the first aviator to cover a 1,000-mile (1,609-km) circuit of Britain in a single day, with 11 compulsory stops at fixed intervals. The challenge was completed by M Beaumont on 26 July 1911, in about hours. Paulhan and Grahame-White competed again later in 1910, for the newspaper's prize of £1,000 for the greatest aggregate cross-country flight, which Paulhan won. The flight's 25th anniversary was celebrated at the Aero Club of France, in Paris, on 16 January 1936. Present at the banquet were Paulhan and Grahame-White, along with the French Air Minister Victor Denain, Prince George Valentin Bibescu (President of the FAI), Harold Perrin, and a number of other notable dignitaries as well as early aviators and constructors such as Farman, Voisin, Breguet, Caudron, Bleriot and Anzani. Although by then retired from flying, on 28 April 1950—the fortieth anniversary of the 1910 flight—Paulhan repeated the journey from London to Manchester, this time as a passenger on board a Gloster Meteor T7, the two-seater training variant of the first British jet fighter. After travelling at 400 mph (644 km/h), the 67-year-old Frenchman said "C'était magnifique ... It was all I ever dreamed of in aviation—no propellers, no vibration." The Daily Mail entertained him at the Royal Aero Club in London, where he was accompanied by his former rival, Claude Grahame-White. References Footnotes Notes Bibliography External links Images of